Written and directed by: Jonathan Levine
Review by: Laura Hawbaker
A teenage loner, socially ostracized, struggles to come to terms with adulthood while discovering his sexuality and doing a lot of drugs along the way…
There’s also a night in jail at some point, which is a seeming inevitability.
“The Wackness” is the latest indie ode to coming-of-age in a cruel, cruel world, and the film’s writer director, Jonathan Levine, is acutely aware of how overdone the story is. So he sets “The Wackness” apart from its interchangeable contemporaries with a superb cast of actors, a rollicking hip-hop soundtrack, and loads of wistful longing for a bygone decade, the 90s.
Set in Manhattan in 1994, the film follows Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck), who, upon graduating from high school, has little to show for it. He is “the most popular of the unpopular” and has no friends, his family is on the brink of eviction, and (worst of all) he’s still a virgin. The only thing Luke has going for him is his day job. He’s a thriving pot dealer who operates from a pushcart icy bin, but even that looks to be in danger now that the newly elected mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, is cracking down on the city’s urban “character.”
Luke unloads his dope (both psychologically and literally) on his therapist/customer, Dr. Squires, played with reckless, hilarious abandon by Ben Kingsley. Dr. Squires barters his trade for Luke’s trade, but the kind of therapy Luke receives from the good doc is anything but conventional. Squires, a perpetual adolescent and drug addict, tells Luke, “Get your heart broken, find yourself face down in the gutter” and, most importantly, “get laid.” Squires is unaware this bit of advice encourages Luke to pursue the girl of his dreams, Squires’ stepdaughter Stephanie, played by Olivia Thirlby (“Juno,” “Snow Angels”) who once again steps into her standard role: of hipster sex-kitten.
Levine dots his supporting cast with clever references to the 90s. Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man is Luke’s supplier. Former “Full House” pixie, Mary Kate Olsen, is one of Luke’s customers, a constantly high, dreaded bohemian chick who, in a VERY memorable scene, has sex in a phone booth with Sir Ben Kingsley. If nothing else, Levine accomplished one of the strangest sexual pairings in film history.
Thematically, “The Wackness” is a three way battle between sex, drugs, and 90s nostalgia. Romantic, lingering shots of Luke and Stephanie sharing a joint, downing beers, or snorting Ritalin are interspersed with Luke’s clumsy attempts at de-virginization. However, the clear winner of this brawl is the 90s. References include Criss-Cross, Notorious B.I.G., Pearl Jam, Kurt Cobain, Forrest Gump, 90210, mixed tapes, Air Jordans, and the original Nintendo. In this world, the standard greeting is “waz up,” and friends are “homies.” Things aren’t cool… they’re “mad cool” or “mad hot,” and the river is “mad dirty.”
Word.
